1. No news is good news

The Big 12 didn't generate any major headlines during its spring coaches and athletic director meetings in Phoenix, which is a good thing. Usually when the Big 12 makes news, well, you know the drill by now. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby spoke Saturday following two days of meetings and only three reporters remained, as opposed to last year's expansion/consultant lollapalooza.

"I'm just a lot less popular, I can tell you that," Bowlsby said, smiling. "We just had a lot of processes going on. ... I had three different vacations planned [last year] and I can cancel all of them."

The football coaches still had questions at their College Football Playoff presentation. The Big 12 -- and everybody else -- thought winning a conference title was a key element. Then Ohio State made the playoffs without even winning its Big Ten division. Bowlsby wondered about it in December. His coaches followed suit.

"They had questions about the same thing I had questioned -- what does a championship mean?" Bowlsby said. "This is the first year we had a non-conference champion that made the playoff. There were some questions that were asked about is it the teams playing best at the end of the year, or is it the whole body of work?"

2. Timely advice

Baylor's Matt Rhule understood the challenge stepping into the Baylor coaching job in the wake of the school's sexual assault scandal. While the list of people with firsthand knowledge of a similar situation is limited, Rhule got advice from someone who had lived it. Current Texans coach Bill O'Brien replaced Joe Paterno after the Jerry Sandusky abuse scandal at Penn State. As a Penn State alum, Rhule was aware of what unfolded from the outside and had even talked with O'Brien about possibly joining his staff back then. So when Rhule approached O'Brien for advice, O'Brien told him to simply do the best job he can now.

"That's my whole thing," Rhule said. "I'm trying to do my job, teach and mentor, coach these kids on and off the field and in school to make sure they get great educations. So that doesn't change regardless of what happened before. We have to be respectful of what happened before, but we have a job to do with these kids right now."

3. Big 12 woes (cont.)

One reader took exception to Saturday's story about the Big 12 draft woes in an email, saying it was predictable with the loss of Texas A&M, Nebraska, Colorado and Missouri in realignment. Here's my reply, edited slightly for content, clarity and AP style:

Big 12 recognizes it has a problem in producing NFL talent but question is, how can they fix it?

"No arguments about A&M. The Aggies -- at least financially and in recruiting -- have been helped in a huge way in the move to the SEC. It was a great move for them. Less sold on the other schools from a talent standpoint. While Mike MacIntyre seems to have things turned around at Colorado, the Buffs had only produced three draft picks from 2013-2016. Nebraska and (especially) Missouri lost strong pipelines into Texas with the move out of the Big 12. Nebraska had played in three of the last five Big 12 games before leaving, including the last two. The Cornhuskers have made the Big Ten title game once in 2012 (although Mike Riley is putting together a good recruiting class for 2018). And new members West Virginia and TCU have done a decent job churning out draft talent. While they combined for just three picks last month, the two combined to deliver 10 draft picks in 2016. So there's a lot of conflicting data. It's not clear-cut."